


Rule of Three: Analyzing the Story Structure of Kingdom Hearts

by The_Violet_Howler



Series: Kingdom Hearts III Meta [7]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Analysis, Gen, Kingdom Hearts III Spoilers, Meta, Nonfiction, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Speculation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-13 17:56:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21195215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Violet_Howler/pseuds/The_Violet_Howler
Summary: Attempting to determine the general framework of the Kingdom Hearts series in regards to how many "sagas" the story will be divided into.





	Rule of Three: Analyzing the Story Structure of Kingdom Hearts

Kingdom Hearts is kind of obsessed with putting things in groups of threes. **  
**

We have all our character trios… 

For most of the series you could only have a maximum of three characters in your party….

The 99 Dalmatian Puppies were hidden 3 to a chest throughout KH1… 

The first 3 Disney worlds of a “main” Kingdom Hearts game are typically grouped on the World Map into clusters of 3: 

  * KH1: Wonderland, Olympus Coliseum, Deep Jungle
  * KH2: Land of Dragons, Beast’s Castle, Olympus Coliseum
  * BBS: Enchanted Dominion, Castle of Dreams, Dwarf Woodlands 
  * DDD: La Cite Des Cloches, The Grid, Prankster’s Paradise 
  * KH3: Olympus, Toy Box, Kingdom of Corona 

There 3 Key Cards needed to advance the story for each Disney world in Chain of Memories….

There are only 3 Disney worlds in Re:coded…. 

You get the idea. 

There is also Yen Sid’s book in KHII that when you read is divided into three sections: 

“The Beginning”

“The Interlude”

“The Future Story” 

Thinking about Kingdom Hearts in the context of storytelling frameworks, it would make sense to conclude that the overarching narrative of the series would fall into a three act structure. A beginning, a middle, and an end. 

With the series now being divided between the Dark Seeker Saga and the Lost Masters Saga (as fandom has dubbed it in lieu of an official name), the logical conclusion would be that the story of Kingdom Hearts will ultimately be divided into three sagas. The Dark Seeker Saga, the Lost Masters Saga, and one more after that. 

Right?

Not necessarily. 

From what has been established so far, the Master of Masters is the biggest antagonist in the setting. Regardless of his still-unclear motives, his actions in the age of fairy tales are what set the events of the entire series in motion. Not only that, but the KH3 Secret Reports and the DLC trailers reveal that all of Xehanort’s actions were part of his design, actively encouraging Xehanort’s ambitions with Luxu as a devil on Master Xehanort’s shoulder. 

With the KH3 secret ending and Re:Mind trailers confirming his return in the present day, he is being thoroughly established as the next major antagonist of the series. With Xehanort out of the way, the Master of Masters has returned to the stage to pursue his agenda in person.

With the scope of how the Master of Masters has affected the plot of the series, I don’t see how Nomura would be able to top that with a third major antagonist. Revealing that there was an even bigger threat that had influenced the Master’s actions in some way would feel a bit repetitive after the reveal that he had orchestrated Xehanort’s rise to power all along. But a new villain with no connection to either the Master or Xehanort would honestly feel like a step down at this point. 

And what better choice for the final antagonist of the series than the man whose manipulations set the entire narrative in motion? 

Then something occurred to me.

Someone pointed out on Twitter (I can’t remember who specifically) that the ending of KH3 marks the first time since the end of KH2 back in 2006 that the audience had a relatively blank slate as far as speculation about future titles was concerned. So I asked myself: Does the Dark Seeker Saga only take up one act of the series, or two? 

Kingdom Hearts, Chain of Memories, and Kingdom Hearts II tell a complete story with a clear beginning, middle, and end. While there are hints at future mysteries, the future of the series was still a blank slate where the possibilities of what direction the story could go in next were endless. All of the games released from Birth by Sleep onward were building up to either rescuing characters who were suffering because of Master Xehanort’s actions, or building up to the final conflict with the aging Keyblade Master. But at the end of KH2, there was no looming threat or huge mystery to solve, and the game’s epilogue ended with an upbeat “the adventure continues” tone. 

Not to mention, the series’ infamous complexity really only started coming into play from 2009 onwards. New mysteries are set up and new characters are introduced. When all we had was KH1, COM, and KH2, the lore was honestly pretty straightforward. It was the trio of Birth by Sleep, Days, and Re:coded, followed by Dream Drop Distance, that expanded the lore and the mythos of the series, as well as established the greater conflict with Xehanort. Which in a long form story is the exact kind of thing you would expect to happen when you start getting into the second act. 

I think that if the overarching story of Kingdom Hearts is ultimately divided into three acts, then the first three games are Act I. They introduce audiences to the setting, the characters, and the major concepts of the mythos. 

The rest of the Dark Seeker Saga is Act II. These games introduce new characters, new concepts, and expand on the franchise’s lore. They pull back the curtain on the previous arc and reveal that there was more going on behind the scenes that Sora was not aware of, setting up a new conflict to put an end to Xehanort’s ambitions permanently and help the people whose lives were broken by his machinations. 

The Dark Seeker Saga ends with all of the outstanding plot arcs wrapped up - All the Nobodies (and Xion) who were destroyed in their previous appearances have been restored as complete people. Terra, Aqua, and Ventus have been saved. Xehanort has finally been thwarted once and for all. We’ve been left with a relatively blank slate with new mysteries and conflicts being set up to fill the void left by Xehanort’s exit. 

In essence, from the standpoint of storytelling structure, I would argue that the Kingdom Hearts saga on paper would look like this: 

##  **Act I: Dark Seeker Saga Part 1**

Kingdom Hearts I

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories 

Kingdom Hearts II

##  **Act II: Dark Seeker Saga Part 2**

Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days

Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep 

Kingdom Hearts Re: coded

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance

Kingdom Hearts X

Kingdom Hearts: Unchained X

Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep - A Fragmentary Passage

Kingdom Hearts X: Back Cover

Kingdom Hearts: Union X

Kingdom Hearts III

##  **Act III: Lost Masters Saga**

Kingdom Hearts: Union X

DDD2 (or whatever the game building off the KH3 secret ending turns out to be called)

However many games come afterwards 

The first and second acts end with a relatively blank slate for the audience in terms of speculation about the future of the series. 

The second and third acts open by pulling back the curtain to reveal a more complex understanding of the events of the previous acts that fleshes out the lore and mythos of the series. 

If true, this would give the 2.8 collection title, “Final Chapter Prologue”, a really clever double meaning. While on the surface it functions as a prologue to the last game of the Dark Seeker Saga, it can also be read that “these games serve as a prologue to the true final act of the story.” 0.2 was originally going to be the prologue of KH3, Dream Drop Distance is one of the tentpoles of the second act that moves the present day plot forward, and Back Cover introduces the Master and the Foretellers to give audiences a reason to care when they show up at the end of KH3. 

In other words, Final Chapter Prologue not only serves to deliver the core information that players need to know going into Kingdom Hearts III, but it also serves to at least partially contain the games whose stories, characters, and concepts will be fundamental to the closing act of the series. 

TL;DR: The Lost Masters Saga will most likely be the final chapter of the Kingdom Hearts narrative due to the scope of the Master of Masters’ actions. If the overarching story of the series is structured in a three-act framework, then the Dark Seeker Saga was spread across both Act I and Act II, with KH2 marking the end of Act I. 


End file.
